The Legend of Nethyien, the God-Forge
by T.A. Saunders ©2011 v1.0 At the beginning of time, one of the first gods to be born from the Cosmos was Kaal, the Flamebringer and he was the smith to all the other Gods of Order, forging for them weapons and armor of vast power with his Forge, Nethyien. This forge was said to have been created by the Gods of Order themselves, out of the very fabric of the Cosmos, so that Kaal could make these mighty tools of war for their confrontation with the Gods of Chaos. Nethyien, in the ancient Asyndi language means Creator, and was named this because it allowed Kaal and later those who would follow in his footsteps, the ability to create from its divine flames by not only skill and craftsmanship, but though the direct focus of one’s own will. An edge of a weapon could be made impossibly sharp, metals never meant to be smelted together could be combined to make impossibly strong alloys and one’s own imagining could bring forth exotic items that no mold or hammer alone could ever craft. At the end of the War of Gods, there was only Kaal and his beloved Zorah left to represent the Gods of Order, along with their vast legions of Asyndi and Prismatic Wyrms to enforce their domain over Imarel as well as the parts of the Cosmos where they held sway. Now laden with the responsibilities of his new station within the Bright Heavens, Kaal chose the Asyndi blacksmith, K`Syr to take his place as the Smith of the Gods and vested within him all the knowledge he had in crafting weapons with Nethyien. In addition, Kaal commanded K`Syr to take on an apprentice so that should something happen to K`Syr in a time of war, that there would be another to furnish the Asyndi with their Runeblades and Rune-Marked Armor. To this end, K`Syr held a contest amongst the greatest of the Asyndi smiths to find one that could craft with a skill that equaled his own. While many legendary weapons and armor were born for this contest, only the smith, Euroyn and his great hammer, Loch`Jyr were selected. Not only was the bejeweled hammer of pure Divinium a weapon of immense power, but it also served as a mighty smith’s hammer, that imbued the metal it was struck upon in the forge with exceptional strength and power. For three centuries, K`Syr taught Euroyn all that Kaal had taught him about Nethyien, for her secrets took a strong mind to master. To create with this forge, not only did it take skill and strength, but the ability to imagine the item being crafted in one’s mind and bringing that vision to life through the strange white fire of the God Forge. While sounding simple enough, it took great amounts of discipline to focus for the great many hours required to bring life to creations in this manner. The master worked long and diligently to teach the apprentice, though there was little love lost between the two. While K`Syr saw blacksmithing the weapons of the Gods as a means for greater power, Euroyn saw it as a means of self-expression and art. For him, a weapon that could inspire fear in an enemy upon being drawn for its magnificence, was greater than the weapon that could strike down a foe with brutal force. Furthermore, K`Syr believed in making weapons and armor to glorify himself, while Euroyn believed in crafting them to glorify the Old Gods and the heroes that wielded them into battle. While these fundamental differences in belief led to many heated discussions, nothing ever came of it, other than a mild dislike for one another. After three centuries, Euroyn had learned what K`Syr had been given through divine touch, by Kaal and the two saw each other little, save when one or the other was utilizing the mighty Nethyien to ply their craft. This peaceful, but distant co-existence continued until the end of the War of Twilight, when the Champion Hazaad fell from faith and was thought slain on the battlefield. K`Syr had seen mighty Rizmyra shatter in the Champion’s hands in the fight with the infernal Underlords, its shards glimmering like tears as they flew outwards with the heart-wrenching crack of the Divinium from which it was crafted. Having slain his own enemies, K`Syr scrambled to collect the pieces of his masterwork, feeling both shame that something he created could fail in this way and anger that Hazaad had not taken better care of it. Assuming the champion slain, he left Hazaad where he lain and gathered all the shards, save one that he had missed and took them before Kaal and Zorah, with the intention of reforging the weapon for the next champion. This was not to be however, as Kaal forbade the blade to be reforged; like Hazaad himself, the sword Rizmyra served as a symbol of what many Asyndi were becoming and until this incorrect thinking amongst His children was resolved, Kaal would not allow the sword to be reforged, nor a new champion to be selected. Outraged, K`Syr put a plot in motion to enter the Nethyien and use it to reforge the blade in secret and choose a champion himself. Euroyn learned of this plot and repelled K`Syr and the band of rogue Asyndi he had brought to Vocoria, where the forge was hidden deep below the surface of the moon. Defeated by Euroyn and the Vocorians, Kaal’s giant guardians of the God Forge, K`Syr gathered what remained of his rogue army and went into hiding on Imarel, to both gather more forces and plot his next offensive. It had proven to be strange and unfortunate timing that K`Syr’s next assault on the Nethyien came to bear the very day Tashalasheeri was exiled from the Bright Heavens. In her rage and her anguish, she set about destroying all of Vocoria with a sorcerously enhanced burst of her Frostfire breath. Even as the red moon began to shatter, K`Syr charged the gateway to the Nethyien, made his way to the forge and found his old apprentice, Euroyn preparing to teleport the God Forge, so it might escape the destruction of the red moon. Not realizing the scope of Tashalasheeri’s wrath, K`Syr assumed Euroyn was merely protecting the forge and not seeking to take it from its very resting place. K`Syr grabbed a spear from one of his soldiers and lobbed it at Euroyn, hoping to interrupt the spell, then take control of the Nethyien. The spear had struck Euroyn just as he completed the spell, landing deep within his shoulder with a savage bite, but this was not enough to stop the Asyndi from completing the spell. With more rocks crumbling and lava seeping in around them, K`Syr was left with the shattered sword of Hazaad and an empty cavern to be his tomb if he didn’t act quickly. Wishing his soldiers well, K`Syr cast an arcane traveling spell of his own and left his troops in to face the lava that just burst through the door behind them. Anybody standing near the entrance to the passage down, could hear the horrified screams of male and female Asyndi, as they were burned alive in the final moments of Vocoria’s existence. Euroyn, who had taken a serious injury from the spear, was not able to maintain his concentration on the arcane exodus, which resulted in the God Forge and a good part of the chamber that held it, materializing deep in the ground, under where millions of years later, the city of Anthalas would be built. While the injury to his shoulder was really a small matter to heal with sorcerous craft, the issue of what to do now that he and the Forge were locked within this tomb was now foremost on the Asyndi smith’s mind. As one of perhaps a handful of Asyndi that remained loyal to the Old Gods, Euroyn prayed to Kaal for guidance. For many weeks, Kaal did not answer, as there was a great effort to save Imarel and Ishaela from destruction occurring far above on the surface of Imarel. As one of the few Asyndi who did not fall from the grace of the Old Gods, Euroyn did not require food and drink to sustain himself, while waiting for the Sun Father’s answer. Suspecting that this was a test of faith, the Asyndi smith went about repairing the Nethyien with the very rock and ore surrounding him. In doing so, Euroyn fashioned a method in which the heat of Imarel’s core would fuel the forge, much like Vocoria’s did, as well as a series of tunnels crafted by his own sorcery, that would allow him to possibly leave, if the Sun Father willed it. Finally, when white fire rose from the sorcerous forge once more and these tunnels completed, Kaal finally responded to Euroyn content that he did not fall, with the words of his bidding: “You will become the Eternal Guardian of the Nethyien, bound to its fate as its fate is now bound to Imarel. You will know a much deserved sleep until one is found that can wield the power of this Forge and do so with the wisdom that weapons cannot be made for the sake of one’s own glory, but for the sake of having a purpose. A weapon without purpose is the seed of chaotic slaughter; yet, the weapon whose purpose is known when it is made, is a shaper of destiny and a bringer of justice. You will sleep long, Euroyn, but you have earned your rest. Sleep now and when you wake, the time for a new smith will be upon you.” It would indeed be millions of years before the Nethyien would be found and its truth revealed. Above, continents shifted, wars were waged and the Prince of Vengeance had taken power over the Shar`Vaire and with this rise to power came the blossoming of the City of Anthalas and the industry that came with it. It was here, while leading an expedition into tunnels deep under the city that had no apparent purpose, that Darechon Dur`lane discovered the sealed door of the Nethyien. The Kal`aire Avenger was about to attempt to tear open the door with his brute strength, before finding it open and behind it stood ancient Euroyn, who had been awakened by his arrival. It was here that Euroyn knew the new smith had come and explained all that the son of Mourne Dur`lane required to know. For the next three hundred years, Dare like Euroyn before him, would learn the secrets of the Nethyien and gained a greater understanding of when the God Forge should be used and more importantly, when the God Forge could not be used. Darechon, who had been an accomplished weapon-smith before meeting Euroyn, learned many things forgotten from the true Asyndi in manner of craft and principal. He gave the berserker a thing to focus his will upon, when rage and fury scattered his attention into a primal force of destruction; through the understanding of the God Forge, Dare gained an understanding of himself and the need to temper his fury, much like he tempered the metal before him, under Euroyn’s guidance. When these three hundred years came and went and Darechon’s mastery of the God Forge proclaimed, Euroyn who had truly earned his rest, ascended into the Bright Heavens, as bidden by Kaal and the Kal`aire Avenger given the task of protecting the Forge’s secrets even from his own kin, till the day came that he would choose a successor to guide. Unfortunately, that day never came; the death of Darechon at the beginning of the Second Godswar of 1346 AC has left his mighty smithing hammer, Loch`Jyr unaccounted for and the Nethyien sealed. For now, its secrets and power hidden from the world. Category:Legends